A movie a few years back made the concept of building something and having people show up famous. And, as Hollywood would have it, it worked. But this is the real world. Or at least the real internet world, and things don’t happen exactly that way.
To build a web site and have people come to it, you have to complete certain steps. Let’s take a look at what is required to build it and have them come. Can they find it once you build it? Do they want it (or what it offers) when they find it? Can they get it once they find it?
First, and the most important, is having a site that people can find. What is required to have a web site that people can find? It’s a combination of search engine rankings, advertising, and linking.
Current statistics show that between 70 and 85% of an average site’s traffic comes from search engines. So having excellent search engine rankings is all-important in having people come to your web site. This is attained through search engine optimization and web site design that takes into consideration factors such as keyword density, meta tags, and search engine friendly design. When your site is designed and optimized for great and relevant search engine ranking, you are well on your way to receiving your fare share of that 70%+ traffic to your web site.
The second important factor to attaining good search engine rankings is your overall advertising efforts. You have to advertise where your niche market is “hanging out” on the internet. And you have to advertise with copy and banners high powered enough to get your potential visitors to come visit you. Advertising is a method of driving traffic to your web site that you cannot afford to overlook.
Finally, links play a vital role in getting traffic to your web site. Links on other web sites where your niche market visits drives traffic to your web site while also raising your search engine rankings through a factor known as “link popularity”. Links are an inexpensive form of advertising and driving traffic that help you get more people to come to your web site.
The next factor to getting people to your web site is actually offering what they are looking for or what they need to solve their problems or cure their pain. You have to know who your niche market is. You have to make sure that you create the perception of need within that niche market. And then you have to make sure that what you are offering is meeting that need.
Your niche market may grow and change over time. But you have to know whom it is to keep up with them and reach them through the factors mentioned above. When you know whom these potential customers are, you can focus on reaching them with your marketing message and getting them to your web site.
Once you capture this niche market, you have to speak to a specific need they have that your product or service will fill. Or you have to create a need within their minds that your product or service will fill. Nobody buys anything that they don’t believe that they need.
So make sure that your product or service meets those needs and service it accordingly.
The final item to deal with in this article is making your site shopable. No, this isn’t a word you will find in Webster’s Dictionary. But it should be.
Many internet newbies get to a web site and fall out of the ordering process because it is too difficult for them. You have to provide an ease of ordering and quality level of service that makes shopping easier than going to a brick and mortar store or another web site. Without doing so, you can get all the traffic in the world out of your potential niche market and still never sell anything. If you don’t know whether or not your shopping cart system is easy to use, try walking through placing an order yourself and see what happens. Get your friends to try it as well.
If even one person feels that the ordering process is too difficult, then you need to look into streamlining the process and/or getting an easier to use ordering system.
If you analyze each of these steps individually, then you will build a site to which people will come and buy.
Shannan Hearne is the owner of SuccessPromotions.com and the co-founder of ShoppingInTheSouth.com
shannan@successpromotions.com
